Spaceweather.com posts daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Geomagnetic Storms:Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm

Updated at: 2014 Jan 01 2200 UTC

Mid-latitudes

0-24 hr

24-48 hr

ACTIVE

30 %

20 %

MINOR

10 %

05 %

SEVERE

01 %

01 %

High latitudes

0-24 hr

24-48 hr

ACTIVE

15 %

20 %

MINOR

25 %

30 %

SEVERE

40 %

25 %

Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014

What's up in space

When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms.

NEW YEARS AT THE EDGE OF SPACE: On New Year's Day, Jan. 1st, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus will launch a space weather balloon to the stratosphere (~120,000 feet altitude). It's part of their ongoing program to monitor energetic solar particles at the edge of space. Would you like to support their flight? You can! For only $49.95 the students will send a picture of your choice along for the ride. The group has previously photographed cupcakes, shoes, US presidents, ad banners and telescopes at the edge of space. Your personal New Year's greeting card could be next. Contact Dr. Tony Phillips for more information.

STRONG FLARES UNDERWAY: 2014 began with a bang. At 18:54 UT on January 1st, big sunspot AR1936 erupted, producing a strong M9-class solar flare. This eruption follows close on the heels of an almost-equally strong M6-category explosion on New Year's Eve: movie. Here is a picture of the M9-flare recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

Neither of the "New Year's Flares" so far have been very geoeffective. AR1936 is approaching the sun's western limb so it is not directly facing our planet. Nevertheless, CMEs produced by these explosions might deliver glancing blows to Earth's magnetic field later this week, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms. We'll find out more about this possibility when coronagraph data from SOHO and STEREO reach Earth.

Meanwhile, more flares are in the offing. Sunspot AR1936 has an unstable 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that could erupt again at any time. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-class flares and a 10% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours. Solar flare alerts:text, voice.

"What better way to spend New Years Eve than with clear skies and also an aurora display right up to 11.35pm?" says Jordan.

The display will likely spill over into the New Year. The solar wind speed is picking up as Earth moves deeper into the stream. NOAA forecasters estimate an increasing 25% to 40% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Jan. 1-2. Aurora alerts:text, voice.

Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Jan. 1, 2014, the network reported 4 fireballs.(4 sporadics)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

Near Earth Asteroids

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.